Epoch AI, the research group that tracks AI hardware and training trends, estimates that the United States received 72 percent of all AI computing power delivered anywhere in the world between 2022 and June 2026. The figure comes from its new AI Chip Imports explorer, which counts 27.4 million H100 equivalents (a unit that converts every chip into the performance of Nvidia’s H100) and assigns 19.8 million of them to American data centers.
Nvidia and the cloud providers almost never say which countries their hardware ends up in, so Epoch worked backward from customs paperwork. Nearly every advanced chip passes through packaging in Taiwan and then crosses at least one more border before it is switched on. Epoch collected import records from 16 major destinations, subtracted chips that only pass through trading hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and then estimated how much of the leftover server and component trade was AI hardware. For countries that publish little, it inferred arrivals from what other governments report shipping out.
China ranks second with 2.6 million H100e, or 10 percent. The EU has 1.4 million (5 percent) and Malaysia 0.7 million (2 percent). No other country passed 2 percent. The American lead is also widening: its share of each year’s new compute sat near 60 to 63 percent through 2024, rose to 72 percent in 2025, and reached 78 percent over the opening six months of 2026.
China’s number needs care. Counting chips it builds for itself, China holds 18 percent of the AI chips in Epoch’s data but only 10 percent of the compute, because a lot of that hardware is weaker. Nvidia’s H20, designed to fit US export rules, and domestic parts from Huawei and Cambricon make up about 40 percent of the total. On imports alone, China received 12 percent of the chips and 6 percent of the compute. Epoch says the true figure could sit between 1.9 and 4.2 million H100e, depending on what the trade is assumed to contain.
Smuggled chips are only partly visible. Anything visible in Chinese customs records is counted, including units that arrived against US export rules. Shipments nobody declares leave no trace. Epoch points to its earlier piece on smuggling through Malaysia as a look at one such route.
A fair question is whether customs data can be trusted as a yardstick. Epoch checked it against its separate sales estimates, which draw on company disclosures and analyst reports. Both series grew almost tenfold between mid-2023 and mid-2026. Quarterly spending went from below $10 billion to nearly $80 billion. Over that stretch, cumulative customs-derived spending landed within 4 percent of the sales-based figure, although single quarters were off by about 15 percent on average. The two are not fully independent, because converting server value into chip value uses Epoch’s own prices and product mix.
The gaps are worth knowing. A chip counted on arrival may not be running yet, or may move on to another country later. Taiwan, which makes and uses chips at home, is missing because those chips never cross a border. The UAE and Vietnam lack detailed customs data, so their figures rest on other countries’ export records, and anything under 1,000 H100e is not shown by country.
For anyone arguing about export controls or sovereign AI plans, these estimates put numbers on the distance between Washington and everyone else. A government promising a home-grown AI buildout can now be judged against the fact that outside the US, China, and the EU, no country reached even 2 percent of the total.
Reported by Epoch AI, in an article by Lucio Melito and Isabel Juniewicz, with no publication date given in the source.
